24 Quotes to Help You Make Peace With a Tough 2017

Alright, let’s make one thing clear: 2017 was a difficult year for a lot of us. We saw mass tragedies and political divides so strong that people felt anxious to see families during the holidays—ouch. And every year brings its own series of personal challenges, too.

For all the reasons that this year was harder than we anticipated (all of which I don’t need to lay down for you, because our social media feeds do that for us already), perhaps it’s time to reflect on how we've grown through them.

Here, we rounded up 24 of our favorite quotes on growth, strength, and coping. Let wisdom from great thinkers and speakers remind you that resilience is the key to moving forward. 2018, let’s hope you’re a bit kinder to us all.

1. “Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it's less good than the one you had before. You can fight it, you can do nothing but scream about what you've lost, or you can accept that and try to put together something that's good.” - Elizabeth Edwards

2. “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” - Nelson Mandela

3. “Acceptance doesn’t mean resignation; it means understanding that something is what it is and that there’s got to be a way through it.” - Michael J. Fox

4. “The human capacity for burden is like bamboo—far more flexible than you’d ever believe at first glance.” - Jodi Picoult

5. “Panic causes tunnel vision. Calm acceptance of danger allows us to more easily assess the situation and see the options.” - Simon Sinek

6. “What you leave behind says as much about you as what you bring along.” - Jacquelyn Middleton

7. “My scars remind me that I did indeed survive my deepest wounds. That in itself is an accomplishment. And they bring to mind something else, too. They remind me that the damage life has inflicted on me has, in many places, left me stronger and more resilient. What hurt me in the past has actually made me better equipped to face the present.” - Steve Goodier

8. “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” - Maya Angelou

10. “When you take risks you learn that there will be times when you succeed and there will be times when you fail, and both are equally important.” - Ellen DeGeneres

11. “Always do your best. Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgement, self-abuse, and regret.” - Don Miguel Ruiz

12. “We don’t develop courage by being happy every day. We develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.” - Barbara De Angelis

13. “Adversity and perseverance and all these things can shape you. They can give you a value and a self-esteem that is priceless.” - Scott Hamilton

14. “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’” - Eleanor Roosevelt

19. “Rock bottom became the solid foundation in which I rebuilt my life.” - J.K. Rowling

20. “Today expect something good to happen to you no matter what occurred yesterday. Realize the past no longer holds you captive. It can only continue to hurt you if you hold on to it. Let the past go. A simply abundant world awaits.” - Sarah Ban Breathnach

21. “It’s not the events of our lives that shape us but our beliefs as to what those events mean.” - Tony Robbins

22. “I am not what happened to me. I am what I choose to become.” - Carl Jung

23. “You are not born with a fixed amount of resilience. Like a muscle, you can build it up, draw on it when you need it. In that process you will figure out who you really are—and you just might become the very best version of yourself.” - Sheryl Sandberg

24. “As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways in which I could respond to my situation—either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. I decided to follow the latter course.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Anna Meyer is a freelance writer and Minneapolis native, and is most likely to be found throwing back espresso shots or planning for her next trip abroad. Alongside Shine, her work has appeared in The Riveter magazine and Inc. magazine, covering a variety of topics in print and online.